New book The Hot Tub Diet aims to bust bad body image

Jessica Padykula is a freelance writer and editor in Toronto, Canada covering a wide range of topics for several online lifestyle publications. She is a regular contributor for SheKnows, covering travel, style, relationships, health and...

Love your body, lose weight

If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and felt bad about your body, you’re not alone. It’s not enough to be healthy -- if you’re not a size zero, you need to get back on the treadmill. At least that’s what the mainstream media has led us to believe.

One woman has had enough, and in her new book she’s urging people to stop feeling inadequate and take responsibility for feeling good about themselves.

Beat the body-image blues

In her new book, The Hot Tub Diet, Bridget Praytor urges people to jump off the treadmill and into the hot tub. No, she’s not talking about shedding pounds while you soak. Following an epiphany moment in a hot tub, where she realized she doesn’t have to be model-thin to be happy, Praytor decided to put pen to paper and share the powerful message that mind over matter can go a long way toward improved body image and even shedding unwanted weight.

Society’s beauty standards

Like millions of women around the world, Praytor felt overweight and inadequate every time she turned on the TV or opened a magazine to see tall, thin, flawless women staring back her. She felt that no matter what she did or how many miles she logged on the treadmill she would never be good enough. Praytor took every diet pill and tried just about every workout there is to fit society’s accepted female "mold." “I was quite literally torturing myself just to be the woman society pressured me to be, even though none of the fads were working,” said Praytor in a statement about her new book. She even went as far as running a marathon without training for it, and training three hours a day for an Ironman competition, just to lose weight.

What is the “Hot Tub Diet”?

After being rear-ended by a distracted driver, Praytor was summoned to the gym’s hot tub during her recovery. “While reflecting on my life and my ability to unsuccessfully try every weight-loss shake ever made, I came to realize that the phrase ‘mind over matter’ was more truthful in its claim than any fad diet ever could be,” she explained.

Praytor discovered her thought process was the "magic pill" for health, beauty and happiness. By adjusting her mindset about her body, her weight, her goals and the real meaning of "healthy," Praytor noticed her body starting to change for the better, with the pounds melting away. The Hot Tub Diet is not a health book, but geared exclusively toward the average person who is tired of society making them feel overweight and inadequate.

Think your way to a better body

The main idea behind the Hot Tub Diet is that the less pressure you put on yourself to look a certain way, the easier it will be to shed excess weight and focus on health. The more you berate yourself, the worse you’ll feel, and the worse you feel about yourself, the harder it is to lose weight.

“This is a book for anyone who is tired of diets that don’t work, tired of punishing exercises and tired of feeling bad about yourself -- and anyone who is ready to change your mindset, feel confident, and finally have a body you love,” she said. “It's about taking time for yourself, getting off the treadmill of life and really evaluating your thought process and why you do what you do. I want people to realize that their thoughts heavily contribute to their weight and that they should think in a more positive way in order to change their health and the way they look."

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